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© History Oasis
Humans and bees have shared a long and intertwined history, with evidence of honey hunting dating back to prehistoric times and formal beekeeping emerging in ancient Egypt around 2400 BCE.
The relationship has been largely symbiotic, with humans benefiting from honey, wax, and pollination services—while providing managed hives and care for bees, though in recent times this balance has been threatened by factors like pesticide use and habitat loss.
Napoleon Bonaparte adopted the bee as his court symbol from his coronation in 1804 throughout his reign as Emperor. In a surprising historical connection, 300 golden bee-shaped jewels were found in the tomb of King Childeric I (436-481) of the ancient Merovingian dynasty.
Napoleon had these very same bee jewels affixed to his coronation robe, linking himself to illustrious French lineages while simultaneously embodying the bee's symbolism of immortality, regeneration, and industriousness.
Aristotle wrote extensively about bees in the 4th century BC, accurately describing many aspects of their behavior but also making some wildly inaccurate claims, such as suggesting beekeepers could control swarming by sprinkling hives with sweet wine.
He recommended planting poppies near beehives and advised that beekeepers could identify their own bees by sprinkling them with flour.
Ancient Egyptians revered honey so much that jars of it were buried with pharaohs like King Tutankhamun, remaining edible after 3,000 years due to its unique preservative properties.
Honey was not only used as a food and medicine, but also played spiritual roles—Egyptians believed bees were created from the tears of the sun god Re—and that some spirits took the form of bees after death, with their buzzing thought to be the voices of souls.
The ancient Egyptians revered honeybees as "Tears of Ra" and exported an astonishing 14,000 tons of honey annually along the Nile, with government officials holding titles like "Sealer of the Honey" and "Chief Beekeeper."
In Europe, the tradition of "telling the bees" persisted for centuries, where beekeepers treated bees as family members and informed them of household news, even going so far as to drape beehives with black crepe upon the death of their keeper to prevent the colony from deserting or dying.
Ancient Romans were skilled beekeepers, using various types of horizontal hives made from materials like wicker, bark, and even sun-dried mud.
Some wealthy Romans, including an ex-consul, had transparent beehives made from lantern horn or stone, allowing them to observe the bees working inside—an early precursor to modern glass observation hives.
In Mayan mythology, bees were considered sacred creatures associated with the god Ah-Muzen-Cab, also known as the Diving God or the Bee God, who was believed to protect beekeepers and honey production.
Incredibly, the ancient Maya practiced advanced beekeeping techniques, including using specialized log hives called "jobones" and even feeding their bees a fermented drink made from the bark of the balché tree to produce a honey with hallucinogenic properties used in religious ceremonies.
Lorenzo Langstroth, a Yale graduate and hobby beekeeper, revolutionized apiculture in 1851 by inventing the modern beehive based on his discovery of "bee space."
Surprisingly, his invention, which allows beekeepers to easily inspect hives and harvest honey without disrupting colonies, still forms the basis for 75% of beehives used today, over 170 years later.
Karl von Frisch, a German scientist, made a groundbreaking discovery during World War II when he decoded the honeybee's waggle dance, revealing how bees communicate precise locations of food sources to their hive.
Von Frisch's career was nearly destroyed by the Nazis due to his Jewish ancestry, but he was saved by a bee plague threatening Germany's food supply, prompting Nazi officials to allow him to continue his work to combat the crisis.
Bees have been a symbol in Freemasonry for centuries, representing industry, hard work, and cooperation. Their historical significance tracing back to ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman symbolism.
Interestingly, Masonic illustrations often depict seven bees to represent the seven liberal arts and sciences, while the beehive itself symbolizes the Masonic lodge, emphasizing the collective effort of Masons working together towards a common goal of building a better world.
Bee-lining, a fascinating colonial American tradition, involved tracking honey bees to their wild hives using ingenious methods like scented syrup bait stations and specialized "bee boxes" to capture and release foragers.
Skilled bee hunters could estimate the distance to a hive by timing a marked bee's round-trip flight, with a 10-minute journey typically indicating a hive about one mile away.
The concept of the "mellified man" appears in Chinese medical texts from the 16th century, specifically in the Bencao Gangmu. This account, based on second-hand information, describes an alleged Arabian practice where elderly men would mummify themselves in honey as a form of medicinal self-sacrifice.
The preservation of bodies in honey was known in ancient times, with records indicating that the Assyrians used honey for embalming, and Alexander the Great's body was reportedly preserved in a honey-filled sarcophagus.
The medieval use of bees as a weapon in warfare is a fascinating and surprising historical fact.
In 1289, Duke Albert I of Austria's 15,000-strong army was repelled from a fortress when defenders unleashed live beehives along with boiling water and fiery coals, causing chaos and forcing the attackers to flee.
In the 1970s, media hysteria erupted over "killer bees"—Africanized honey bees migrating northward from South America that were feared to be a deadly threat.
Despite the panic, which inspired a horror film starring Gloria Swanson as a matriarch with supernatural bee powers and a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch—the bees weren't actually more dangerous than normal bees—just more easily provoked—and were unable to withstand cold climates, making the whole scare largely overblown.
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